Tommy Mulgrew

the dog’s bollocks (in more than one sense, perhaps)

Surely not so much the boardroom as why the f*** hasn’t the head coach or one of his assistant coaches or any of the players thought of set-piece training until now? It’s not as though such training is almost unheard of, is it? But, to little old Saints, it’s rocket science. A complete lack of initiative, resulting from over-reliance on data sheets. Our club never ceases to amaze me. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Have you forgotten luscious Lucy?

Many posters on here have praised our players’ commitment in the game today. Yes, it was better than it has been in most games this season but today’s match was our Pompey derby day ffs and for most of the time we played with less intensity than they did. That is unacceptable and smacks of an entitled bunch of players who thought they were more skilful and would prevail. You need to outfight opponents throughout the match and only if you do that will superior skill get you the win. Individual moments such as the Downes tackle for the yellow card were great but where was that passion for the rest of the time? If the goal we conceded was pushed over the line by a hand or forearm, why didn’t our captain protest loud and clear to the referee? If it had been us who scored an equaliser like that, you can be sure the other side would have been all over the referee in an effort to have it ruled out. We still have a team of sons-in-law; it’s not good enough. I can accept losing to or being held to a draw by a better team but not by one that merely tries harder than we do. Players and manager, please take note and do something about it.

First part I doubt but second part I could believe (but not for the reason you envisaged). 😳

Scored another hat-trick today; six shots, four on target, three goals, won four free kicks and won both attempted tackles. Yet he’s not good enough for the mighty Saints.

He obviously learnt more here than I thought he did.

😳 Speak for yourself.

Did his elder brother score for Senegal against Egypt yesterday? 🤓

Sad, I know exactly how he feels. ☹️

Harry Clarke reportedly loaned to Charlton from Ipswich for rest of season. If so, perhaps Bree will return after all. https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/ipswich-town-deal-charlton-athletic-transfer-answer-james-bree-southampton-decision/

I’m guessing - Welcome back, Dave; it’s been a while since I used to read your strangely-formatted posts on this forum.

European CB, loads of caps for his (decent) country, plenty of Championship and EPL experience, presently tearing it up in Portugal with four consecutive defender of the month awards. Saints connections, too. Sounds promising. Oh! 😁 https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/25760164.bednarek-voted-liga-portugals-best-defender-fourth-month-row/

Stoke go from having a GK with the best stats in the league to having one with the worst. Yes please. Yet another record for Saints’ collection. 😇

In Jamaican squad for first time. Hope he does well for his adopted country. https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/25752855.southampton-striker-named-provisional-jamaica-squad-first-time/

Not just that: often, he would practice shooting from the halfway line into them and invariably succeeding. It certainly made geography lessons more enjoyable when he was out on the hockey pitch and you could look out or the window, at least until a piece of chalk - or worse the wood-backed chalk duster - came wizzing past your ear. Interestingly, Ron scored 153 goals in 277 appearances and Martin 108 in 189, a better strike rate although most of his goals for us were in the second division and better than his rate at Spurs, 200 in 415. Happy memories of him for me at school and at the Dell. RIP, Mart.

Exactly what we did under Cortese. I remember us being successful, too. Remarkable, isn’t it? How unlike us now! 😩

For those who have not yet read it, see this: https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/news/65411/daily-echo-hint-at-player-power-issues-in-southampton-squad

Interesting article about an interview Leo gave to Brazilian media. Seems he does not want to end his career in Brazil but wants to stay in Europe. His next goal, obviously is to get promotion to the EPL with Saints. (He might have a long wait.) As with his other interviews, he comes across well. https://sportwitness.co.uk/just-to-correct-you-southampton-player-shuts-journalist-down-then-talks-up-promotion/

Azaz has the physicality of a gnat and the speed of a sloth; he epitomises one of the major flaws of our squad. He has not so far lived up to the promise of him as a game-changer for us. Unlike Scienza and Fellowes, who both have. But they cannot do it on their own, especially if only one of them is on the pitch at the same time. The games we played before Honda was confirmed as a permanent coach were the most pleasing for several years. We were sharp and incisive and moved forward at speed, by both running with the ball at opposition players and passing incisively to willing runners attacking the oppo’s goal. We have since then lost all sense of urgency. We have stopped being a Honda team and become a Lada (or Reliant Robin) one. True, other managers have set up cleverly to negate our forward momentum but our players show no urgency at all for about an hour and a half each game. That and not merely well-coached opponents is why we look so poor. Take the last game as an example: for the first 90 minutes Millwall looked more likely to score than we did. They had more shots, more shots on target and more touches in the opposition box than we did; they moved from defence to attack swiftly and effectively. All while playing an essentially defensive game and not really looking to threaten our net much at all. Only in the last few minutes of extra time did we look remotely like scoring a goal. Only then did we resemble the free-playing, attacking team that scored for fun just a month or so ago. Now that the festive flurry of games is nearly over, the time has surely come to abandon the boring, slow, ponderous baiting of the opposition’s press and walking pace efforts of moving the ball forwards when we do occasionally break free and trust ourselves to rapidly threaten the oppo’s goal. When we do that we look like a team that everyone on here wants to support, one that plays exciting, attacking football, always looking to outscore our opponents, even if we do concede a goal or two. We have tried to protect our goal at the cost of sacrificing our attacking intent; it does not work. The present negative and turgid rubbish being served up has got us hardly any points and is alienating most fans. Ditch it, Tonda or your short-lived Championship managerial career will soon be over.

Verrry Inteeerrresting! But stupid (to rely only on a 3CB formation). Now we know that Goztepe, the premier club in the SR franchise, dictates the way that the SR feeder clubs play and so support the premier club’s achievement of Champions League participation. All hail Goztepe and SR. So sorry that almost all the posters on here are apparently wrong. ☹️

Merry Christmas everyone. ☃️❄️🍷🎄🦌🎅🏻 😇

👀. I know a Championship side who already has one of those sitting on the bench most games and many posters on its forum attributed promotion to him less than two years ago. His name is Alex McCarthy. 😇

Anything else you can share with us?

I’m curious how you know that, @Hodgey. Please tell us what you know about the probable activity in the January transfer period. Thank you in advance.